The primary goal of this site is to provide mature, meaningful discussion about the Vancouver Canucks. However, we all need a break some time so this forum is basically for anything off-topic, off the wall, or to just get something off your chest! This forum is named after poster Creeper, who passed away in July of 2011 and was a long time member of the Canucks message board community.

I shoulda started this thread at the beginning of the summer like I use to but been a pretty busy season but I always make time for reading....

My current book is by Jeremy Rifkin The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis.I saw him speak at a Sustainability conference and I was intrigued by his work. A positive force in a world seemingly without positivity. His work in Europe is well regarded and known but can he have an impact on the North American man?

It's science, which is usually not my gig, but this one is intriguing. The author is a certified genuis who has been on the cutting edge of the computer industry since the 60's. It explains how real AI is close and that it will explode our progress a thousandfold in a short time. Basically we will be almost unlimited in our power and ability with the advent of nanotech and the construction of computer minds far more powerful than our own which will be able to think and process in three dimensions. Yeah yeah, I know. The Terminator. Skynet. Judgement Day. But this guy explains why that is an incredibly unlikely scenario.

Pretty fucking interesting.

Cowards die a thousand times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

It's science, which is usually not my gig, but this one is intriguing. The author is a certified genuis who has been on the cutting edge of the computer industry since the 60's. It explains how real AI is close and that it will explode our progress a thousandfold in a short time. Basically we will be almost unlimited in our power and ability with the advent of nanotech and the construction of computer minds far more powerful than our own which will be able to think and process in three dimensions. Yeah yeah, I know. The Terminator. Skynet. Judgement Day. But this guy explains why that is an incredibly unlikely scenario.

Pretty fucking interesting.

Nanotech is real? Wow, I didn't realize how life like Ratchet and Clank really was.

Has anyone read "The Devil in the White City"? - Holy!It's a fascinating book based around Chicago's 1893 World Fair, with the overlapping stories of Daniel Burnham, the fair's architect, and serial killer H. H. Holmes...

Other older favourites:"Into Thin Air" Jon Krakauer's account of the tragic climb up Everest in 1996. Read "The Climb" by Boukreev which provides some rebuttal."A Walk in the Woods" Bill Bryson's funny story about hiking the Appalachian Trail"Dead Men do Tell Tales" William Maples' forensic anthropology book, including accounts of his most famous cases (Tsar Nicholas)."The Fountainhead" Ayn Rand - great story with underlying objectivism."Dead Eye Dick" Vonnegut...

To the as-yet-unborn, to all innocent wisps of undifferentiated nothingness: Watch out for life.

I have caught life. I have come down with life. I was a wisp of undifferentiated nothingness, and then a little peephole opened quite suddenly. Light and sound poured in. Voices began to describe me and my surroundings. Nothing they said could be appealed. They said I was a boy named Rudolph Waltz, and that was that. They said the year was 1932, and that was that. They said I was in Midland City, Ohio, and that was that.

They never shut up. Year after year they piled detail upon detail. They do it still.

Have 'The Devil in the White City' on my short list of books to read, Southern Canuck.

I'm a huge fan of Christopher Moore, Topper. I'm gonna be needing a Moore fix soon, been a while since I've read anything from him.

I'm still going through my Gothic Americana, just picked 'The Devil All the Time' at Chapters yesterday written by my new favorite author - Donald Ray Pollock, after being wow'ed by his debut book 'Knockemstiff'. Sort of like Cormac McCarthy meets Raymond Carver. Another one of my favorite authors - William Gay describes 'The Devil All the Time' "hits you like a telegram from Hell slid under your door at three o'clock in the morning". Speaking of William Gay, and no he is not gay, I highly recommend his book 'Twilight', which is sort of like To Kill a Mockingbird but more twisted.

Strangelove wrote:Just finished "Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back" by Todd Burpo.

Found it interesting.

Earlier this summer I re-read Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions".

(wifey picked me up a copy because I'd been talking about Vonnegut a lot)

I've been thinking a lot about "Steppenwolf" by Herman Hess.

As well as his "Glass Bead Game".

I haven't read those for about 25 years.

I was his biggest fan once upon a time.

Yep, gotta get around to re-reading some Hess!

Time to start talking to wifey about the dude.....

Very iRonnic Doc, the original German Steppenwolf is sitting on my shelf. Given to me by mien Frau as a birthday gift after she saw my old worn English copy on the shelf. I will read the Deutsch version one day. We are going to Germany for Christmas (Frohe Weihnachten) so Spidey Jr. and I are taking lessons and I hope to be able to converse fluently by then...

Arachnid wrote:Very iRonnic Doc, the original German Steppenwolf is sitting on my shelf. Given to me by mien Frau as a birthday gift after she saw my old worn English copy on the shelf. I will read the Deutsch version one day.